


all work, no play

by flowermasters



Series: lady kylo ren (and her general) [26]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Babies, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Kittens, i can explain, i'm dead serious, no i can't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-26
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-18 07:19:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7304896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowermasters/pseuds/flowermasters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Is that – a <i>cat?"</i> Kylo says, moving in to get a better look at the creature.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all work, no play

**Author's Note:**

> ... sorry. It's just, I have the sniffles, and I watched videos of babies playing with small animals all day. Life is hard when you love evil assholes. I was working on something else for them, but it's being ... difficult. 
> 
> Warnings for: literally nothing except cisgirl Kylo and tooth-rotting fluff. Probably won't make much sense if you're not up to speed on what's going on, but, uh, go for it.

The sound of Padmé’s voice, high and chirrupy as birdsong, announces her presence almost before the Force does. A beat later comes the muffled sound of Hux’s reply. Kylo only narrowly manages to throw a sheet over her work before the door to the shed swings open, silhouetting Hux’s figure with light.

“Stars, it’s like some kind of crypt in here,” he says dryly. “Do the lights even work, or are they just for show?”

“Mother!” Padmé calls, squirming past Hux’s legs to get inside.

Squinting in the sudden influx of bright light, Kylo slides off her stool and onto her feet, subtly attempting to crack her neck as she does so. Hux notices anyway, and rolls his eyes at her. He’s one to talk – he’ll stay up reading til his eyes are bloodshot and stinging – but Padmé distracts Kylo before she can point this out.

“Little one,” Kylo greets. Padmé presents her cheek for kissing, and Kylo obliges her, even though her joints scream at her for bending down.

“Guess what we got,” Padmé says. Guessing games are Padmé’s favorites, but only when she’s the one in on the secret.

“Hmm,” Kylo says thoughtfully, her gaze flicking from Padmé to Hux as she straightens up. Danny is dozing in Hux’s arms, no doubt worn out from whatever excitement they've encountered, but there’s something – _different_ about him.

“Is that – a _cat_?” Kylo says, moving in to get a better look at the creature. Nestled against Hux’s chest, safely pinioned by Danny’s arms, is a small ball of orange fur with eyes, peering back at her.

“She’s a _kitten_ ,” Padmé corrects, so Hux-ishly that only years of practice keep Kylo from laughing out loud.

“What?” Hux says, when Kylo just stares at him. “She’s right; it  _is_ a kitten. I’m not sure it's a female, however.”

“You got them a cat,” Kylo states, still not entirely sure she’s following. She’s fairly certain she’s never once seen Hux handle a live animal; he’s certainly never before considered coming home with a pet. Such a thing would be an indulgence, a frivolity.

“A _kitten_ ,” Padmé repeats impatiently, from roughly knee-level. “I want to play with it.”

The kitten doesn’t look particularly diseased, and it’s too young to pose much of a threat, so Kylo gingerly frees it from Danny’s grasp and allows Padmé to take it. The kitten tolerates the transfer but mews loudly, much to Padmé’s delight. Daniel rouses from his nap almost on cue, blinking at them all in bleary-eyed confusion.

“Take it into the grass,” Kylo instructs. There are far too many nooks and crannies in the shed for both a cat and a child to escape into. Then, as an afterthought, she adds, “And be  _careful_ with it.” Padmé is not overly prone to gentleness, after all.

Padmé bounds out the open door, holding the kitten to her chest, and mercifully remains in Kylo’s line of sight. Danny reaches out then, sleepy but smiling. Kylo takes him from Hux, indulging herself for a moment in the soft, clean scent of his hair as she holds him close. Danny doesn’t talk much, not to Kylo – somehow he knows that he doesn’t have to. She can feel the gentle hum of _missed you_ , _love you, mother_ as easily as if he had spoken.

“So,” Kylo says after a moment. Hux has moved deeper into the shed, nosily eyeing Kylo’s project, but Kylo remains in front of the door so that she can watch Padmé as she cavorts in the high grass. She’s currently plucking the delicate wildflowers that bloom, without fail, every time the temperature rises, only to die off when the cold returns. The kitten has little interest in the flowers, but it has yet to run off. “Tell me about the cat.”

Hux sighs, put-upon. He knows Kylo isn’t going to let this go, but he’s strangely embarrassed by the entire situation. He usually is, when he’s done something most people would consider normal or even pleasant. He can never be most people, after all. “It’s Daniel’s fault,” he declares. “I looked away for _five_ seconds in the market and when I turned around, he’d bonded with the little beast, or something.”

“Mm,” Kylo prompts, with heavy skepticism. The sound makes Danny smile, like he’s in on the joke.

“He _cried,_ ” Hux says. “And once he started, then Padmé did, so forgive me for cutting my losses and letting them keep the wretched thing.”

“Is that so,” Kylo says, to the both of them. Hux huffs, irritated, but Danny pays her no mind. At last he’s noticed the absence of his sister, as well as their new playmate. He makes a plaintive noise, then squirms a bit.

“Down,” he says. He’d let Kylo keep holding him without complaint, but he wants very badly to go and play, so she complies, bending to set him on his feet and adjusting his rumpled tunic before releasing him. Daniel so rarely cries, and yet he is somehow harder to deny for it.

Once free, he toddles out into the open, calling for his sister. Padmé waves a hand and Daniel wades into the grass to reach her, so small that only his head and shoulders are unobscured. Kylo watches them silently until Hux joins her in the doorway, his shoulder barely brushing her own.

“If I didn’t know any better,” Hux says thoughtfully, “I’d say you were building a droid in here.”

Kylo looks over at him and raises her eyebrows. “And if I was?”

“I’d be inclined to ask why,” Hux says. “Seeing as we don’t have much need for one.”

Kylo shrugs, a gesture she knows that Hux finds annoying to this day and, therefore, she delights in. “For them,” she says, nodding towards the children. “A surprise.”

It’s an idea that has lingered for quite some time now, since before she built this – well, Hux calls it a workshop, but it’s nothing so grand. But then, Hux had also been the one to put the idea of a workshop in her head, after complaining about her making a mess of the house when she built a new crib for Padmé. It’s taken this long to scrounge up enough tools and scrap to have something to go on. This has given her something to do over the past few weeks, in bits of time when the children were with Hux. Of course, she trains and meditates, still, but – there’s something continually refreshing about productivity.

“I suppose you’ve been at it all day, then,” Hux says. “Out here in the dark like some kind of mad scientist.”

Kylo glares at him, but Hux is pursing his lips to cover a smile. Teasing her, not mocking. “I lost track of time,” Kylo says, knocking her shoulder against Hux’s without any real aggression. Truthfully, she just hadn’t noticed that the overhead light had gone out, leaving her working only by the light of a desk lamp.

“Well,” Hux says finally. “I think it’s an excellent idea. Children do well with droids.”

That’s a bit of an understatement. Neither of them had especially conventional upbringings, but Hux was nursemaided by a nanny droid, and droids were practically part of Beni Solo’s extended family. Kylo shakes away the thought and merely hums an affirmative, watching as Padmé trips in the grass outside. (The only thing wounded is her considerable pride.) Hux allows it when she slides an arm around his waist, then reciprocates the gesture when Kylo huffs at him.

“It might interest you to know,” Kylo says innocently, “that I’ve brought some blankets out here.”

“Are you planning on moving in?” Hux asks dryly.

Kylo frowns. “No,” she says, annoyed that he hasn’t caught on yet. “But I could work late, sometimes. After they’re in bed.”

Hux gives her a slightly scandalized look, finally getting what she’s all but shouting at him. “That’s incredibly unsafe.”

Kylo raises her eyebrows at him. “I know you don’t _buy into all that_ ,” she says, resisting the urge to do her best imitation of his accent, “but I really do have a bond with them. I can feel it when either of them has to so much as sneeze.”

Hux rolls his eyes, unconvinced. “I’ll think about it,” he says loftily, which almost certainly means he’ll come around, eventually.

Hux must catch sight of mischief in her expression, because he frowns at her. “What?” he snaps.

“Nothing,” Kylo says. “I still can’t believe _you_ let them cry their way into a cat.”

Hux sighs. “Well, now we’ll never be rid of it,” he says, nodding towards the field. Danny has rescued the cat from his sister and hidden with it; the tiny creature is giving them both away with its insistent meowing.

“Cat hair makes me itch, you know.”

“How curious. Have you tried not touching them?”

“Asshole,” Kylo mutters, hiding a smile against his shoulder.

Padmé discovers her brother’s hiding spot and, with a stamp of her foot, demands access to the kitten – Kylo distinctly hears, “Let _me_ hold Millie now!”

“Millie?” Kylo repeats, wrinkling her nose. “As in Millicent?”

“Well, it was a suggestion,” Hux says. “What's so funny?”

“Nothing,” Kylo manages, disentangling herself from him to go and separate the children before there's an all-out scuffle over poor Millicent. “I'm just glad I didn't let you name anyone else, that's all.”


End file.
